Sakshi Maharaj

Swami Sachchidanand Hari Sakshi Ji Maharaj (born 12 January 1956), also known as Sakshi Maharaj, is an Indian political and religious leader belonging to the Bharatiya Janata Party.

He also won Indian general election in 1991 from Mathura, 1996 and 1998 from Farrukhabad.

He was elected to the Lok Sabha in 1991 from Mathura, 1996, and 1998 from Farrukhabad which has a Lodh majority.

Sakshi Maharaj has been involved in the Ram Janmabhoomi movement and is currently under trial as one of the accused in the Babri Masjid demolition case.

In the 1999 general election, he campaigned for Samajwadi Party after he was denied a ticket for Farrukhabad by BJP.

After 1999 election results were declared, Mulayam Singh formally admitted him to Samajwadi Party.

Sakshi Maharaj said the BJP's policies were not favourable to poorer and backward sections of the society.

The ticket had been denied to him on the order of Atal Bihari Vajpayee.

Back then, Sakshi was an accused in the murder of Brahm Dutt Dwivedi, a close associate of Vajpayee.

But later the charges were dropped due to lack of evidence.

He was also a member of Rajya Sabha from 2000 to 2006, before being suspended for corruption.

He holds a Ph.D. degree and runs various educational institutions and ashrams across India under the banner of Sakshi Maharaj Group for which he is also serving as its present director.

He has been at the center of controversies for his reportedly Islamophobic views.

In 2000, he was nominated to the Rajya Sabha by Mulayam Singh Yadav.

In August 2000, a college principal from Etah filed a complaint accusing Sakshi and two of his nephews, Padam Singh and Shivram Ram, of gang-raping her.

The woman and her male colleague had been allegedly assaulted by Sakshi when they were driving to Agra from Etah.

They had also allegedly taken away the woman's licensed firearm and jeep.

The police said that the woman had been living in Sakshi Maharaj's ashram for four years.

She had expressed the desire to marry a colleague but Sakshi had objected to it.

Sakshi spent about a month in the Tihar jail custody awaiting trial.

In 2001, he was acquitted due to lack of evidence.

In January 2002, he criticised Samajwadi Party, accusing it of dictatorship, nepotism, casteism and capitalism.

He said he would remain in Samajwadi Party but support BJP candidates.

In December 2005, STAR TV broadcast a report stating that it had carried out a sting operation and found that some parliamentarians were misusing the MPLADS funds.

Sakshi Maharaj, then a Rajya Sabha member, was among the 11 named parliamentarians.

Sakshi had allegedly promised fund for a fictitious NGO.

On 21 March 2006, the Rajya Sabha voted to expel Sakshi for violating the code of conduct while rejecting his apology.

In 2009, an inquiry started by Etah District Magistrate Gaurav Dayal found that a college owned by Sakshi had received ₹2,500,000 from the funds.

The inquiry also named Sujata Verma, the principal of the college.

She was later murdered.

Sakshi initially absconded but on 14 October 2009 he surrendered.

He was released on a bail bond of ₹15,000.

In 2012, he returned to BJP just before the assembly polls.

On the night of 15 April 2013, Sujata Verma, 47, was shot dead while returning from Sakshi's ashram in Etah.

He won the 2014 general election from Unnao, Uttar Pradesh.

While campaigning in the 2019 Lok Sabha Elections, he said that he feels it is the last election of the country.

Sachchidanand Hari Sakshi was born in Sakshi Dham, Kasganj district, Uttar Pradesh.

His father was Atmanandji Maharaj Premi and mother was Madalasa Devi Lodhi.

Sakshi belongs to the Lodh community which has been categorised as an Other Backward Class in Uttar Pradesh.

Initially, Sakshi belonged to the BJP and had close associations with Kalyan Singh, another BJP leader belonging to the Lodh community, and another BJP leader Kalraj Mishra.